The Thylacine Test

The Thylacine Test

Curious about how evidence, belief and sheer hope can collide over a single set of photos? This story follows Neil Waters, president of the Thylacine Awareness Group, as he walks a Tassie back road with a beer in hand, convinced he’s captured “a baby Joey thylacine” on his trail cameras. He tells his followers, “Congratulations everyone. We’ve done it. Cheers,” and stakes his claim that these blurry images show a mother and her young.

On the other side of the island sits wildlife biologist Nick Mooney, the unofficial thylacine expert who’s spent decades sifting through sightings, footprints and shaky videos. Nick applies a calm, methodical eye and what he calls the Briginshaw test, weighing how strong the evidence really is.

Where Neil sees stripes and a straight tail as proof of a tiger, Nick sees “a paddy melon… a young at foot, following a mother through the undergrowth.” The episode paints a vivid contrast: Neil, the citizen scientist who “wears his heart on his sleeve” and refuses to let go of his belief, and Nick, who insists that “material evidence… is really important” and feels like “a wet blanket” when he tells excited people their proof doesn’t stack up.

You’ll hear how media frenzy erupts over the supposed rediscovery, only to cool once Nick’s report lands. Reporter Shane Anderson ties it all together with the bigger questions: how our minds cherry-pick what we expect to see, how an extinct animal becomes a symbol of regret and hope, and why someone like Nick keeps answering every call and email for free in case, one day, the photos really do make his heart stop.

If you’ve ever clung to a belief in the face of cold facts—or had to be the one pouring “cold water” on someone else’s certainty—this episode might have you asking: what would it take for your own heart to stop and say, "this changes everything"?